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Nazi's In America MYRNA ESTEP, ph.D. http://www.feminista.com/v3n10/estep.html Introduction
Some Hateful Ideas Sometimes it only takes a little time for even the most hateful ideas
to catch on. With enough power and money‹especially money--the most
heinous ideas can become "acceptable" and appear
"respectable" to some. Such are the ideas of white male racial
superiority and the implied right to power over all others. This includes
the additional implied right to "phase out" of existence others
who are held to be inferior. These ideas and their underlying rationale
were the basis of Hitler's National Socialism. Though Allied Forces put an
end to Hitler and his Third Reich over fifty years ago, ideas of Nazism
are still very much alive. They are still wreaking pain, suffering, and
death on those whom the Powerful decide are unfit to live. Historically, National Socialism-termed ŒNazism'(1) --was Hitler's
Conservative political creed of racial and cultural "purity." It
was also a genocidal program of hatred directed specifically against Jews.
Hitler's Nazism was based on the twin myths of racial and cultural
"purity" of so-called Aryans (the Whites) and the "diseased
and dirty" race and culture of so-called non-Aryans (the non-Whites),
particularly the Jews. National Socialism became the foundational creed of
a genocidal eugenics political program to "cleanse" the world of
the "dirty" Jews and their "diseased" cultural
influence. Hitler envisioned his Third Reich as the beginning of a New
World Order that would put Ayran Whites back in their "natural"
place of Superiority and Power over all others. It was also intended to
rid the world of those whom he claimed had usurped Aryans of their
"rightful" Power and Superior Position in the first place.
Aryans had to be put back in to their natural place of superiority over
others, Hitler held, because a powerful and deceitful Jewish cabal had
over many years conspired through devious financial and cultural
manipulation, to displace them. In Hitler's view, the only real solution to the so-called "Jewish
problem" was a Final Solution to rid the world of them, a world that
had to be "cleansed" of Jews and their influence. At the end of
WWII, the world learned of the efficient machinery of death built and
operated by Hitler's SS to do just that. Throughout Europe, millions of
Jews and entire populations of other "diseased and dirty"
so-called "non-Aryans" were shipped in train cars to multiple
concentration camps and murdered. A Dramatic Shift to the Conservative Right in America Since the end of WWII, but especially over the last 35 years or so, the
political landscape in the U.S. --as well as other parts of the world--has
shifted dramatically to the Conservative Right. That shift has largely
gone unnoticed by those not old enough or not historically sensitive
enough to place the Conservative Right political ideology and agenda in
historical perspective. Many do not realize that the inherently racist,
homophobic, and misogynist ideology now passed off by some Conservative
Right politicians such as George W. Bush as acceptable and even
respectable, was part of the reason the U.S. entered WW II. Millions of
American soldiers died fighting against that hateful ideology that many on
the Conservative Right‹in varying degrees-- are now trumpeting as a kind
of "final solution" to socioeconomic and other problems they
claim have been created by the U.S. Government and by the
"Liberals" of the 1960's. Certainly, American G.I.s returning from the ravages left by Hitler's
Third Reich at the end of WWII probably could not have conceived the
possibility that the United States might one day have its own Nazi Party.
But in the 1950's, while the world was still coming to terms with the
Holocaust and fighting Cold War Communism, George Lincoln Rockwell, born
March 9, 1918 in Bloomington, Illinois, was engendering the idea of the
American Nazi Party (ANP). From the late 1950's until his death in 1967, Rockwell became the
seminal force of post-World War II National Socialism (Nazism) in America
and the originator of the "Holocaust Denial" movement. That
movement, institutionalized in various neo-Nazi organizations such as the
so-called "Committee on the Open Debate on the Holocaust" (CODOH)
is so rampant today across the United States that many college-age and
younger unquestioningly accept its fundamental thesis, that the Holocaust
is a Jewish lie. William H. Schmaltz's Hate:
George Lincoln Rockwell and the American Nazi Party is an excellent,
well-researched book on Rockwell's American Nazi Party (ANP) and
its legacy to Conservatives in the United States. He has documented the
historic development of this Conservative Right organization and its
leader, who would otherwise be (and was, by some) dismissed as a
"half-penny" Hitler. Through numerous interviews with many of
the original ANP "Stormtroopers" of Rockwell's Party, and much
research from the FBI and other original sources, Schmaltz traced the
persistence of Rockwell and his supporters to establish the ANP over many
financial, political, and legal obstacles, from 1958 through 1967. Most importantly, Schmaltz provides us with an invaluable overview of
the American Nazi Party's evolution to its present forms, the Christian
Identity movement, Aryan Nations, and the Order. Certain
of Rockwell's original Stormtroopers, such as William Peirce, head of the
neo-Nazi National Alliance, have carried forward the Nazi creed and
agenda of Rockwell's ANP. The last part of the book, the Epilogue,
provides a very useful summary of that evolution and development, as well
as an outline of the similarities and differences between the
Conservatives of Rockwell's time and present-day Conservatives of the
1980's and 1990's. Following a largely historical approach to Rockwell's formation of the
American Nazi Party, Schmaltz provides a much needed insight into how it
was possible for Rockwell to be as successful as he was among a very
politically Conservative population during the 1950's and early 1960's in
the U.S. All other things being equal, one might expect such a population,
still recovering from the scars of WWII and the battles against Hitler, to
entirely reject Nazism out of hand. Though many did reject the Party of
Hate, too many did not then, and still do not reject it today in the year
2000. Indeed, under various guises paraded today before the Public by
factions of the Conservative Right, too many are welcoming the basic ideas
of Nazism with open arms. Schmaltz's main contribution is his focus upon Rockwell's belief that
Conservatives are really National Socialists. Though we would today reject
Rockwell's claim about all Conservatives, we should take a serious look as
to whether or not his claim is true about factions of the Conservative
Right. Rightly or wrongly, In a national presidential election year where
one of the front runners is a very popular candidate of the Conservative
Right, we will focus upon that theme as well in this Commentary and
Review. We want to examine the extent to which Rockwell's belief may be
true. Conservatives as National Socialists (Nazis) Rockwell's legacy to the world‹especially to the Conservative Right
in America--has been far-reaching. He believed that millions of people in
the U.S. who considered themselves Conservatives (2) were either conscious
National Socialists or were "only a synapse away from discovering
that they were National Socialists‹and never knew it‹because they have
never been allowed to know what National Socialism is" [p. 49]. He
believed that National Socialism is the very essence of what Conservatives
really want, but are afraid to openly say so. In the upside-down, Looking
Glass language of the Conservative Right, it simply wouldn't be
"Politically Correct" to admit that one is a Nazi. Rockwell adhered to two basic beliefs in his desire to see the triumph
of Nazism throughout the U.S. and eventually throughout the world. One
belief, as noted, was that every Conservative is at heart a National
Socialist, a Nazi. He believed that if given sufficient understanding of
what that doctrine is, every Conservative would recognize his or her own
basic beliefs in that doctrine. However, he also believed that Nazism had
been given such "bad press" by powerful Jewish leaders in
Hollywood--with their anti-Nazi WWII films--that most Conservatives would
not openly acknowledge that that is what they really are. The second major belief Rockwell held was that merging Nazism with
Christianity would not only ensure Nazism's survival, but its ultimate
triumph in the United States. Thus, Rockwell set out a plan which he
followed in the last several years of his life, turning National Socialism
into a redefined version of the Christian religion, Christian Identity.
It is important to stress that Rockwell and the followers of Christian
Identity have redefined and rewritten fundamental doctrines of traditional
Judeo-Christianity in order to achieve a following for Nazism. Their
redefined doctrines bear little resemblance to those of traditional
Christianity. One of the foundational beliefs of Christian Identity is
that Jews are the "seeds of Satan," and conspired to eradicate
"God's chosen people," the Aryans. Christian Identity holds that
one of the historically recent means Jews did this has been by
perpetrating the lie of the Holocaust. Thus, in addition to merging Nazism
with the contemporary Christian Identity movement in the U.S., Rockwell
also originated the "Holocaust Denial" movement as well. Some of the same religious and political arguments Rockwell used to
advance the causes of National Socialism in the 1950's and 1960's until
his death in 1967, can be found articulated in various statements by
spokesmen for Conservative Right groups in the United States today. These
spokesmen range from the Reverends Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell to Pat
Buchanan, to Ronald Reagan at Bitburg's SS Cemetery, and to the overtly
neo-Nazi World Church of the Creator Reverend Matt Hale. The
Conservative Right religious spokesmen‹along with politicians upon whom
they have great influence--have repeatedly and consistently advanced
social, political, and legal policies against non-white minorities, women,
homosexuals, and the poor, that are consistent with Hitler's and
Rockwell's Nazism. Hitler's National Socialism and Rockwell's American
Nazi Party (ANP) both left a strong legacy of hate to the Conservative
Right in the U.S. today. What is a Nazi? But the Reader may rightfully ask, "Just what is it about the
Conservative Right that might make it Nazi?" Clearly, on the surface
that seems to be a very strong claim for anyone to make. To answer the
Reader's question, one must distill the essence of Nazism--from Hitler to
Rockwell to David Duke and to the Reverend Matt Hale. Once one gets clear
on what that essence is, all one has to do is look for it anywhere one may
find it. The essence of Nazism comprises two fundamental beliefs: (1) that some
people are genetically and morally inferior forms of life; and (2) that
genetically and morally superior forms of life, to survive, must
"purify" their race by eliminating genetically and morally
inferior groups. In essence, Nazism is not just racism; it is also
genocide.(3) Genocide, however, can take many forms. Under Hitler, the
systematic efforts to exterminate entire so-called "inferior"
peoples consisted of murder, both in the camps and out of them,
starvation, and forced sterilizations, among other means. Additionally,
there were systematic efforts put in place to simply "phase out"
of existence more members of those so-called inferior groups by
withholding food, shelter, and medication from them. "Inferior"
people, including children, were often left simply to starve to death.
"Under Nazi rule, 750,000 people across Europe, including 5000
children, were murdered [just] for being mentally or physically
handicapped. Children were killed by injection, medical experimentation or
simply starved. The Nazis called them "unworthy lives." (4) Moreover, these groups of so-called "unworthy lives" provided
a plentiful supply of research specimens for Nazi physicians and
scientists. These victims often died as a result of cruel and inhumane
experiments performed upon them. More specifically, concentration camps
provided the ultimate Final Solution devised to efficiently exterminate as
many Jews, Gypsies, handicapped, homosexuals, and mentally deficient as
possible. Use of the 'Disease' Metaphor To promote his genocidal agenda, the "Disease Metaphor" was
deliberately used by Hitler and his Nazi Third Reich theorists to promote
the perception of a necessity to "cleanse" the body of Germany
by ridding it of "putrid morally degenerate human filth" that
had invaded it. So-called inferior peoples such as Jews, Gypsies, Blacks,
and the poor, were seen as mongrels, racial and moral degenerates, an
"insidious disease" infecting the body of society in the same
way that cancer if left unchecked spreads throughout the human body: "There is a close analogy between a human body invaded by a cancer
and a nation afflicted with sub-populations whose inborn defects cause
them to become social liabilities. . .When these inferior elements are not
effectively eliminated from a (healthy) population, then. . .they destroy
the host body as well as themselves." (5) Under Hitler, the new [pseudo-] science of eugenics was used to
systematically set up programs of research and development to exterminate
and "phase out" of existence so-called genetically and morally
"inferior" persons, particularly Jews. He saw Jews as unnatural,
diseased, and corrupting in their influence on others. And just as some
diseases are spread by infections, when healthy organisms are invaded by
the disease, Hitler held that Jews were parasites that had
"infected" the "healthy" organism of Germany--with its
naturally healthy and superior form of Ayran life. That diseased influence
of the Jews, Hitler held, was destroying the German people. Thus, under
Hitler, eugenics laws were first passed in Germany in 1933, quickly
followed by similar laws throughout Western Europe and the United States. Throughout the 1930's until the end of WWII, eugenics was popular in
both Germany and the United States. It became synonymous with the
scientific promotion of "race hygiene" to "purify" the
white race of "low grade" and degenerate groups, the genetically
inferior. "Not surprisingly, the victims usually turned out to be the
traditional victims of racism - Jews, Blacks, women, and the poor."
(6) Among such laws in the U.S., forced sterilization programs were
designed to limit pregnancies among those persons held to be
"feeble-minded" or having heritable diseases. The state of
Virginia, for example, had a forced sterilization program that sought to
sterilize all persons with hereditary defects, not just those who had been
institutionalized, until the state was challenged before the Supreme Court
by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Of course, most of those who were sterilized
under Virginia law turned out to be Black females. Hitler's concept of the Third Reich was of a Pure Nation
"cleansed" of impurities and diseased degenerates. The Third
Reich was to be based on the hegemony of the German People whose pure
blood would determine its culture and its community. He and his SS set up
Lebensborn (7) to ensure future generations of pure blooded Aryans who
would build the Kultur of Germany. His concept of the German nation was
not based on a concept of a common Constitution, with the free and open
association of a richly diverse mosaic of citizens. It was to be a pure
White Man's Nation whose values and culture were to be determined by
purity of blood. When the ravages of Hitler's eugenics extermination program became
known at the end of WWII, there arose in the 1950's a concerted effort by
many of its followers to divorce eugenics from racism.(8) When it became
known that hundreds of concentration camps were scattered across Europe,
specifically designed to "cleanse" Germany and the world of
"inferior" groups of people, the world reacted with revulsion.
The science of eugenics --and the biological determinist ("Natural
Law") beliefs upon which it is based--became unpopular. However, the effort to divorce eugenics from racism primarily drove the
explicitly racist motives of eugenics advocates underground, where they
largely remain today. Knowledge of what Hitler and his SS had done, based
in part on the so-called scientific principles of eugenics, however, did
not end eugenics advocacy and belief in biological determinism among
racists in the United States. The Conservative Right Ideology Today: From Natural to Unnatural Selection Brought About by Civil Rights and 1960's Liberals<BR> Facets of the Conservative Right in the U.S. today hold that until the
advent of Civil Rights laws in the 1960's, the rigors of Nature herself
had largely ensured upward evolution of the species by natural selection
of the strongest and (by implication) the best. Until the Civil Rights
era, so-called "Natural Laws" determined who was best,
brightest, and most deserving of life and the rewards of power. Those who
were not the "best" simply died off from starvation, the
diseases of poverty, or other forces of Nature. And, according to these
Conservatives, until the 1960's--before anti-discrimination and
affirmative action laws-- social policies and laws reflected the
"natural" superiority of whites in positions of power. Until the
1960's, White Men were in virtually all significant positions of power in
the United States. White Men held all the significant and high-paying
jobs; White Men were the lawmakers, the decision-makers. It was White Men
who commanded the U.S. Government and White Men who commanded the U.S.
military. But in the 1960s, these Conservative Right factions claim, with the
passage of Federal Civil Rights legislation by a liberal Federal
Government, along with modern science and (secular) humanism, a reverse,
downward selection has been started among the human races. (9) That is, these factions of the Conservative Right claim, 1960's Liberal
political forces in the U. S. Government passed civil rights laws against
discrimination based on race and ethnic origin that have started a
downward evolution in the human species. Liberals and the U.S. Government
have started an increased breeding of the weakest, most unnatural and
morally degenerate human beings, non-whites, homosexuals and women. With
affirmative action, these spokesmen claim, morally, culturally, and
genetically inferior and degenerate persons are increasingly occupying
positions of power throughout the U.S. This is unnatural selection, they
claim, which is "contrary to God's Law," and contrary to
"Natural Law." If humanity as a whole is left a victim to
unnatural ideas of human equality and racial integration, advocated by
1960's Liberals, it will breed itself back down to the barbarian. Of course, this ideology is at core Social Darwinism or biological
determinism, the basis of eugenics. It is an expression of so-called
"Natural Law" theory, of "White Male Might Makes
Right," the core of National Socialism as both Hitler and as Rockwell
saw it, and is held in one form or another by virtually all factions
identified as falling under the Conservative Right today in the U.S. (10)
Some Far Right Conservatives not only accept this ideology, but want to
expand Hitler's genocidal doctrine beyond any primary focus on Jews to
include non-white women, the poor, homosexuals, and what some refer to as
"mud people." "Mud people" include African Americans,
Hispanics, and anyone else who isn't white.(11) Academic Racists and the American Nazi Party in the U.S. As this article is being written, there is a very powerful
anti-government, anti-Liberal, Conservative Right movement spreading in
universities and colleges across the United States. This Conservative
Right movement includes a very strong racist ideology of biological
determinism, also known as "Social Darwinism" and "Natural
Law" Theory. This is nothing less than a resurgence of
eugenics-advocacy, propelled by factions of the Conservative Right, that
intend a full-scale roll back of any Federal legislation designed to
protect non-white minorities and women. These factions of the Conservative
Right movement are allied with anti-Semitic, Christian
Fundamentalist-Christian Reconstruction and Christian Identity groups as
well as neo-Nazi organizations. These Conservative Right neo-Nazis and their followers have
successfully garnered positions for themselves in public and private
organizations and agencies. In some cases, they evidently do not allow
State, Federal, and local laws to stand in the way of their racist,
misogynist, and anti-government goals. (12) The influence of members of
these groups is so far reaching that they have been able within a
relatively short period of time to influence the political makeup of
various local, State and Federal agencies. They have also been able to
effectively undo both Federal and State legislation against discrimination
and to roll back laws protecting non-white minorities and women. Increasingly, public policies, regulations of public and state
supported institutions--especially public education--as well as some civil
and criminal laws, are being radically changed by the Conservative Right
so as to accommodate their "Natural Law," racist, religious, and
misogynist views, as well as their anti-U.S. Government, anti-science, and
anti-public institution views. It is out of this racist, homophobic,
misogynist, and quasi-religious "Natural Law" theorizing that
laws permitting discrimination against non-whites, homosexuality, and
recent theories about the "naturalness" of rape and assault
against females, have arisen. (13) Increasingly as well, such Conservative Right groups call for nations
to identify themselves in biological terms. It is this call, among other
things, that the Conservative Right has in common with neo-Nazi groups.
For example, one finds the following on the neo-Nazi World Church of the
Creator website [http://www.creator.org/]: We have come to hold these [race] views by observing the Eternal Laws
of Nature, by studying History, and by using the Logic and Common Sense
everyone is born with: the highest Law of Nature is the survival of one's
own kind; history has shown us that the White Race is responsible for all
that which we call progress on this earth; and that it is therefore
logical and sensical to place supreme importance upon Race and to reject
all ideas which fail to do so. It is biological determinism that says immigration should be
discouraged and genetically "superior stocks" should be
encouraged to have large families. It is this view that holds that Federal
Civil Rights laws, like anti-discrimination and affirmative action laws,
effect "reverse evolution," giving inferior people unfair,
parasitic advantages over "superior" white people. It is
biological determinism that says that the Poor [mostly women, non-white
minorities, and children] are poor largely because they are unintelligent,
genetically unfit, and morally unworthy. It is also biological determinism
that says that the policy of the United States toward developing countries
with starving populations should be "Let them starve to death. It is
Nature's way of ridding the world of dysgenic [genetically unfit]
populations." (14) "Natural Law" theory, the legalistic expression of biological
determinism, is a brutal denial of human possibilities. It effectively
says that there are no possibilities beyond what biology gives to us. In
the 1930's, the famed German universities and their intellectuals first
capitulated to the Third Reich, providing a mantle of intellectual
"respectability" to anti-Semitism, helping to usher in the
Holocaust. Likewise, today these "Natural Law," eugenics
arguments have been advanced by academic racists and anti-Semites in some
of the largest universities in the U.S. who are well known for their
Conservative Right publications. Although academic racism is nothing new, it has become so powerful in
the U.S. over the last 35 years or so--particularly at major universities
in southern states such as Texas---that forces supporting it are
effectively rewriting laws of the land to reflect their views. (15) In the
name of "States' Rights" and "individual rights
--historically the clarion cry of racists--they are effectively rolling
back Federal Civil Rights legislation protecting nonwhite minorities and
women in order to accommodate their racist, biological determinist view of
human kind. And where they are unable to obtain legislation reflecting their racist
views, they find ways of illegally putting those views into practice in
any case. Groups of Conservative Right individuals formed at some State
institutions of higher education, for example, contrive to drive minority
and women faculty and students out of those institutions by illegal means.
This is what some advocates of Social Darwinism, biological determinism,
are doing at the University of Texas, under the cover of institutional
authority. (16) Some outspoken proponents of the "Natural Law" view can be
found in Texas. The Conservative Right has such a strangle hold on the
State of Texas that it has become George W. Bush's and the Conservative
Right's blueprint for the United States, should George W. become elected
President of the U.S. These proponents can be found in prestigious
positions as department heads, faculty, and administrators at the
University of Texas. (17, 18) If the edicts of these Texas Conservative
Right spokesmen are any measure (19) --as reflected in recent
anti-immigrant and anti-affirmative action sentiment found among
Conservative Right tenured faculty especially at the University of Texas
at Austin, the United States is overdue for a national
"cleansing." These Conservative Right academic racists now claim that virtually all
non-white peoples and cultures are morally corrupt and
"diseased." Non-white peoples and cultures, the Texas
Conservative Right spokesmen claim, are not worthy of equal rights,
protections, and opportunities under any State or Federal law in the
United States. These Conservative Right academic racists want not only to
completely abolish or roll back all Civil Rights legislation largely
passed in the 1960's, they also want to roll back all social service
supports that in any way help non-white minorities to remain alive. These
Conservative Right spokesmen want to effectively "phase out" of
existence non-white peoples and cultures they hold are unworthy to live.
They hold that too many non-white peoples and cultures are like
"parasites" on the healthy body of the United States. (20) The Basic Principle of Hate The basic principle of hate underlying Nazism is simple. Non-white
minorities, the poor, homosexuals, and females are lower than the
heterosexual White Man on the evolutionary chain of life. Invoking
religious sanction, they claim that God has ordained that the heterosexual
White Man, the highest, most morally perfect, and racially purest level of
life on earth, should be vested with the most Power and Wealth. It is his
sacred moral right to take and use everything else as he pleases. Whatever
he does‹no matter what it is‹is by its very nature in the service of
God's Will. This is so because the heterosexual White Male is by his very
nature God's Chosen. No matter what he does, it will be Good because it is
God's Will. This is the "Natural Order" of all things; whatever
does not fit this "Natural Order" is "Unnatural" and
must be either banished, beaten, locked up, or destroyed. This basic
principle, wrapped in religious garb, is nothing short of Social Darwinism
and is an expression of Nazism as Hitler and Rockwell expressed it. Social Consequences of the Principle of Hate Of course, there are brutal logical corollaries to this already brutal
pseudo-religious principle of "White Might Makes Right." One
doesn't have to look very far to find them, especially when social
policies and laws are based upon a brutal and brutalizing vision of the
"Nature of Things." One has only to look back at Hitler's Third
Reich in the 1930's and 1940's. But one can also look at the goals of the Conservative Right Big Money
interests in the year 2000. Conservative Right Big Money interests have a
two-pronged brutal "final solution" to the problems of poverty,
increasing illegitimate births, rising numbers of non-white immigrants,
and the incessant cry for equality from women, Hispanics, and Blacks. That
"solution" under the rubric of various legislative
"reforms"--is a coordinated assault on all federal and state
civil rights laws and all public social service supports that in any way
help the poor to remain alive, or help minorities gain equal rights and
protections under the law. That assault also includes a heavy-fisted
reassertion of patriarchal structures--clothed in Conservative Religious
"Bible speak"--intended to shut women up and keep them in
"their place." The Conservative Right wants to reinstate traditional rigid divisions
between public and private realms. In doing so, they will shift all social
programs such as Welfare and Child Protective Services and public
education to the private (religious) realm, ultimately with no public tax
support. The poor will be left where they have almost always been left:
with their poverty and hunger, their Church, and their children--and out
of sight of the rich and well-to-do classes. They will also be left with a
wrecked justice system that does not hear the poor and does not recognize
civil and human rights. A revised "Kinder, Kirke, Kuche" is the
sum total program for poor women devised by the Conservative Right. Threads of the "White Might Makes Right" ideology of the
Nazi, found in abundance in the Conservative Right in the United States,
are starkly simple. When non-white minorities and their children go hungry
and starve or die prematurely from diseases of poverty, well‹that's just
the way it is. They should die because they are deficient as human beings,
the ideology rants. (21) The poor are deficient by Nature because most of
them are not white and do not--cannot--have the superior values of white
culture. Of those who are white, they are the progeny of mixed races and
hence are mongrels. These lower forms of life deserve to die because they
are racially and (hence) morally impure. As such, they are not worthy of
God's rewards on this earth. Furthermore, we must not thwart God's Will by
helping the poor to remain alive. Welfare programs must be either
drastically cut back or, preferably, ended altogether. Either the poor,
women and children survive on their own‹or they die. To find more of the brutal corollaries to the Principle of Hate, one
must look at what the Conservative Right does‹and listen a whole lot
less to what they say. Ideas of White Male racial and moral superiority,
with an implied right to use and diminish or "phase out" other
groups or the programs upon which they depend to remain alive--are found
throughout the political agenda of the Conservative Right. As is evident, these ideas generally rest on spurious fundamentalist
religious foundations. One does not have to look far to find such ideas in
the ideological rants of politicians from George W. Bush to Pat Buchanan
to Richard Butler, the leader of the Aryan Nations, and to Pontifex
Maximus Reverend Matt Hale of the World Church of the Creator. They are
also found in the de facto racist, homophobic, and misogynist policies of
State governments‹such as the State of Texas; and in policies of state
colleges and universities‹such as the University of Texas. They are also
found in decisions made in boardrooms of large corporations, such as
Texaco; and those Big Money corporations that own and operate certain
states such as the State of Texas. By Any Other Name. . . Threads of the American Nazi Party in the
Conservative Right Hiding behind nice-sounding labels and linguistic equivocations, some
of these ugly Nazi ideas‹with a few twists-- are rearing their heads yet
again in the Conservative Right across the United States. To help these
hateful ideas catch hold, the Conservative Right uses virtuous labels in
political "bait and switch" tactics. In one hand, they offer the
Public an idea labeled Good and Kind. When the Public reaches for that
idea, it turns out sometimes too late for the Public to reject--to be
something Ugly, Brutal, and Cruel. One such label is "Compassionate Conservatism." In one hand,
the Public at large is handed an idea of racial and ethnic
"inclusiveness" and help for "those who really need
it." It is an idea that even gets championed by token African
American and Hispanic marionettes who dance to the tune of Conservative
Right Big Money. (22) In reality, "Compassionate Conservatism" is George W. and Big
Money's Conservative Right ideological program of brutal and cruel war
against the poor, children, women, and non-white minorities. It is not so
well hidden under various rhetorical and linguistic masks intended to
cover the harsh brutality of its effects on its targets. In reality, it is
a program of hateful brutality intended to diminish the lives or
"phase out" of existence those most in need. It is a program
intended to eliminate federal or state help to the poor and others most in
need of food, health care, decent housing, clean air and water, and civil
and criminal due process. It is a program of brutality against the most
defenseless in our society.(23) "Compassionate Conservatism," its progenitors say, is
"Tough Love." But what these well-fed, well-kept and
pseudo-intellectuals from Texas are calling "Tough Love" has
left a large percentage of the poorest children in Texas hungry. Most of
those children, of course, are African American and Hispanic. What they
call "love" has left far too many Texas children with little or
no medical care while also living in severely impoverished conditions.
What these ideologues call "love" leaves children not only
without enough to eat, without sufficient healthcare, it also leaves them
without even minimal protections for their welfare and safety under the
law, and without adequate education. What these well-fed and well-kept
theorists call "love" builds more prisons than schools every
year to house juveniles, alongside those whose miserable lives have led
either by design or by accident to the ravages of crime. What these
sophisticates call "love" is a program of vicious cruelty that
arrogantly engages in the official machinery of death. It engages that
official machinery even for those not old enough to vote when they commit
crimes for which they are imprisoned. It is a program that denies even the
semblance of justice to the most poor, mentally deficient and diseased.
Moreover, what these "compassionate conservatives" call
"love" is a program that has the effect of forcing pregnancy on
economically disadvantaged pre-teen girls while it denies them sufficient
legal and medical means to protect or care for themselves. Though it may take us on a detour from Schmaltz's book, given its focus
upon the Conservative factions in the U.S. and their relation to Nazism,
the State of Texas warrants serious mention here. The State of Texas under
the governorship of George W. Bush is effectively nothing less than a Blue
Print for the nation, should George W. become President of the United
States. Thus, certain facts about Texas under the governorship of a
Conservative Right Presidential contender bear repeating: Some facts about Texas, the Conservative Right Blueprint for the
U.S. Though Œcompassion' is a word that calls forth visions of care,
concern, and charity, George W.'s "Compassionate Conservatism"
is in reality a program of brutality, viciousness, and cruelty. It is
based on the myth that the poor and non-white minorities as morally
undeserving and degenerate, and on the genocidal, racist motive to
diminish their existence or "phase" them out of existence
entirely by ending any public Federal or State support for them. National Socialism and Christianity: The Religious Basis of Nazism As stated, Rockwell's legacy to the Conservative Right in America
included merging Nazism with forms of Christianity. Rockwell's plan was to
make Nazism respectable and acceptable on a massive scale to the American
people by turning it into a religion. Like politicians today, especially
George W. Bush--with his appeal to "faith-based" programs to
take over social services for the poor--Rockwell wanted to
"manipulate America's intrinsic Œreligious fury' [in order] to seize
political power" [p. 211]. Rockwell's plan was to eliminate all
references to ŒNazism'‹while retaining the creed and agenda of
Nazism--and to restructure the entire National Socialist movement into a
form of Christianity.(47) The Christian Identity Movement: Jews as the "Seed" of
Satan As Schmaltz recounts [p. 211], Rockwell met in 1964 with Wesley Swift,
the leader of the Christian Identity Church in the United States. Swift
had popularized Christian Identity theology--also known as Identity,
Kingdom Identity, and Christian Israel-- during the 1940's and 1950's,
teaching that God's law on earth had to be established through an
apocalyptic battle between the forces of good and evil. Identity believers
hold that only white Christian men are "true sovereign citizens. Only
white men form the real, legitimate Government of the United States. All
others are not legitimate citizens. Blacks and other people of color are
the 'beasts of the field' or 'mud people' on the same spiritual level as
soulless animals. They are not true citizens. . . " (48) Identity
portrays Jews as the "spawn of Satan," the descendants of Eve
and the serpent. They are also the "killers of Christ," who was
not a Jew but an Aryan. Rockwell's concern was to devise a plan to mold the American Nazi Party
into a religion to give Biblical authority to the racist genocidal
policies of the American Nazi Party. Like other politicians, Rockwell knew
how to dress up ugly, hateful ideas to make them look and sound like
something they aren't. Like the Conservative Right today, he knew how to
play political "bait and switch" games. To make his political
agenda more palatable to the American Public, he undertook a "denazification"
program to eliminate all references to the word "Nazi," while
still retaining the original Nazi creed and agenda. He knew that
"Nazism" was an objectionable term for most people, even those
who may otherwise be attracted to the ideology behind it. He was killed,
however, before entirely fulfilling his plans to turn National Socialism
into the religious movement he envisioned. But his followers (49) are
attempting to carry out his vision. The meeting between Christian Identity
leader Swift and Rockwell led to Rockwell appointing one of his
Stormtroopers as the American Nazi Party's own Christian Identity
minister. Christian Identity is only one of an entire network of Conservative
Right groups who believe that whites are racially superior to everyone
else. Many right-wing groups such as the Aryan Nations, Ku Klux Klan, and
National Alliance, have been either directly or indirectly involved in
terrorist and criminal activity, and some of their leaders are direct
descendents of Rockwell's American Nazi Party. The ideology of the Aryan Nations and the Order, as well as groups such
as the Ku Klux Klan, and the National Alliance, flows from the same
racist, anti-Semitic religious beliefs of "Christian Identity."
Aryans who cooperate with Jews and darker races are considered
"race-traitors." Many also espouse anti-government sentiments,
holding that the Federal Government is an instrument of Satan, a creation
of the Jews. In an attempt to live apart from "inferior people,"
some right-wing groups advocate creating a separate nation from the five
states comprising the northwest region of the United States--Washington,
Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Many of these groups have been involved in criminal, terrorist
activities. In April 1997, three members of the True Knights of the Ku
Klux Klan were arrested and found guilty in Texas for planning to blow up
a natural gas storage facility as a diversionary tactic prior to robbing
an armored carrier. Earlier, the FBI's "Rapid Lightning"
investigation involved a series of criminal acts committed by individuals
associated with a domestic terrorist organization known as the Phineas
Priesthood. The subjects of the investigation were responsible for at
least two bombing/bank robbery incidents in Spokane, Washington, in April
and July 1996. Three subjects were arrested in October 1996, and a fourth
in 1997. Since then, all four have been convicted of all eight felony
counts for which they were charged and have received lengthy jail
sentences. Fifty Five Years After Hitler: The New World Order of the
Conservative Right Upon Rockwell's death, the American Nazi Party metamorphosed in the
late 1960's and early 1970's into the National Socialist White People's
Party (NSWPP). It later became what is now known‹in 1999--as The
Order. The Order, headed by one of Rockwell's foremost Stormtroopers,
Matt Koehl, has been involved in numerous criminal violent acts of
terrorism across the U.S. The following description can be found online at
http://www.nswpp.org/. The National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP)/ The Order The loss of a biological community is a major concern for neo-Nazis and
the Klan, according to Dobratz and Shanks-Meile [Op.cit]. The New Order
organization (White Power, No. 104, 1983:5) states that white people have
lost contact with their own biological community and thus feel themselves
alienated and alone. As the cure for the problems associated with
individual freedom, whites need to live their lives in harmony with the
laws of nature and reject everything that is decadent and corrupt. Stoner,
of the National States Rights Party, "accused the government
of 'race-mixing' to remold minds like molding clay." The
"race-mixing" not only creates alienation, but "destroys
law and order and education" which will lead to the inevitable death
of America (The Thunderbolt, No. 288, 1983:14). Also according to Dobratz and Shanks-Meile [op.cit], a stable family
unit, a healthy environment, and a healthy farming community which
provides social, racial, and environmental stability are major ingredients
of the community for both the neo-Nazis and the Klansmen. Members
"should have the freedom to associate in their own communities"
without interference from other "cultures, nations and races of
man" (White Patriot-Special Introductory Issue, no date:6). In the
"enlightened community...anything which interferes with the smooth
and harmonious functioning of society must be ruthlessly suppressed"
(Official Program, NSWPP), Koehl, 1989:3). The "Disease Metaphor" used so effectively by Hitler is
evident in the following statement by Koehl. "It is the goal of the New Order to attack the spiritual syphilis
which is eating away at the soul of our Race in a bold and uncompromising
manner, and to destroy the infection by massive doses of the proper
antidote - the pure, undiluted medicine of the National Socialist world
view as conceived by Adolf Hitler. . .There should be an America
"without swarming Black filth in our streets and schools...and free
of alien, Jewish influence" [Koehl, op.cit.]. To develop an Aryan culture, the New Order states that one must
"flush down the drain the poisonous Jewish and Negroid degeneracy
which today is passing for 'art' and 'music' and 'literature.'" There
also needs to be white self-defense so people can live without fear and a
white world solidarity based on alliance with racial kinsmen in Australia,
Europe, and South Africa. The National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP) Covington at that time claimed to have been an acquaintance of Rockwell
(though this information has never been confirmed by a third-party source
nor even denied by Covington's worst enemies) and claimed to be a
representative of a North Carolina branch of the NSWPP. Together, Collin
and Covington planned a re-staging of Rockwell's famous march through the
largely Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie, Ill. However, once it came to be
known that Collin was actually Jewish (born Frank Cohn), Collin withdrew
his plan to march in Skokie, though he maintained that he was being
"smeared" by political enemies. He traveled instead to North Carolina, where his rabble-rousing with
Covington and assorted elements of the far right including White
Patriot Party leader Glenn Miller. This led to a shoot-out in
Greensboro, N.C., in Fall of 1978, leaving five Communist Party USA
activists dead and Collin, Miller and Covington all under Federal
investigation. The investigations into the Greensboro shootings continued
through the early 1980s. In 1980, Covington replaced Collin as head of the
NSPA. Despite a continued show of force on his part, and even a relatively
successful run for State Attorney General of North Carolina as a
Republican in 1980 (he took 43% of the vote), Covington left the U.S. soon
after and traveled to Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom. He
then settled in United Kingdom for several years. Some elements of the far
right claim that Covington had turned FBI informant in the Greensboro case
(and there is some third-party evidence to suggest that this is true),
thus evoking the wrath of former allies and fellow travelers. The most prominent of Covington's new-found enemies was Ben Klassen,
founder of the World Church of the Creator (COTC), who, with
William Pierce of the National Alliance and Tom Metzger of White
Aryan Resistance, tried to expose Covington as an informant and, like
Collin, a Jew. The World Church of the Creator is now headed by the
Reverend Matt Helm, who declares himself Pontifex Maximus (High Priest). Before settling in the United Kingdom, Covington claims to have served
as a mercenary for white separatists in the apartheid nations of Southern
Africa. This claim has been widely disputed. Enemies that Covington made
in the United Kingdom have also linked him to the Irish Republican Army
(IRA), and it is believed that Covington holds dual Irish and U.S.
citizenship as a result of a marriage to an Irish woman. During his
sojourn in the United Kingdom, Covington made several contacts within the
fascist-leaning British National Party and openly fascist National
Front. These contacts culminated in Covington's role in forming
Combat 18 . The "18" in the name refers to the letters of
the alphabet corresponding to Adolf Hitler's initials. Combat 18 was an
openly violent organization that took the United Kingdom race problem to
the streets with violence resulting. However, it was also revealed at the
time that Covington, was also keeping a North Carolina Post Office Box for
Combat 18, giving further credence to the idea that he was an FBI or CIA
informant. In the early 1990's, Covington returned to the United States, and set
up the NSWPP again in Raleigh, N.C., declaring himself the rightful heir
of Rockwell. He briefly moved the organization to Seattle in 1994,
apparently trying to capitalize on the "white bastion" idea of
Aryan Nations, but returned to North Carolina within two years, settling
in Chapel Hill, his base of operations today. Covington launched the NSWPP Web site in 1996 and began posting
anti-Semitic and racist diatribes in Usenet. He quickly found allies in
the Holocaust denial community and offered his writing services openly to
Ingrid Rimland of the Zundelsite. Although Klassen was by now dead, Pierce
and his North Carolina lieutenant Will Williams and Tom Metzger launched
an all-out attack on Covington on the Internet. Williams successfully sued
Covington for libel in 1997 for statements made on the Internet. Also,
Metzgerites in Florida set up NSWPP.COM as an "expose" of the
true nature of Harold Covington. Still, despite his constant embattlement
and laughingstock status, Covington remains. The National Alliance and "The Turner Diaries" One of the leaders of National Socialist White People's Party (NSWPP)
in the 1960's, William Pierce, now heads what is called the National
Alliance at his "headquarters" in West Virginia. The
following description of Pierce and his organization can be found at
http://www.natall.org/. Dr. William L. Pierce, head of the National Alliance, does not fit the
stereotype of the redneck racist. He commands uncommon respect from nearly
every corner of the extremist Conservative Right movement in America.
Beneath the polished exterior that he presents is a dark character that is
revealed only in his self-published fiction-- "Hunter"--a novel
whose hero's hobby is shooting interracial couples, and the now infamous
"The Turner Diaries"--an apocalyptic vision of the future. The
Turner Diaries inspired the worst incidence of domestic terrorism in U.S.
history, the Oklahoma City bombing. The Turner Diaries also inspired the most successful terrorist
underground to emerge since the Civil War, The Order, which robbed
banks and armored cars, counterfeited money and committed murders across
the country in the early to mid-1980's. Pierce's doctorate was awarded in the discipline of physics by the
University of Colorado at Boulder. Though he originally hailed from
Atlanta, Pierce ended up in the Pacific Northwest, teaching physics at
Oregon State University until 1965, when he left academia to work briefly
as a physicist in the private sector in New England. It was during this period that he became involved in the
ultra-conservative but not outwardly fascist or neo-Nazi John Birch
Society, which has traditionally ousted members for openly
anti-Semitic points of view, including Tom Metzger of White Aryan
Resistance, Richard Butler of Aryan Nations, and others. In 1966, Pierce left physics for good and threw his lot with the America
Nazi Party led by George Lincoln Rockwell. After Rockwell's death, the
American Nazi Party had little life left in it, until it was resurrected
by Harold Covington a few years ago. Pierce eventually formed his own
splinter group, the National Youth Alliance (later The National
Alliance). Over the course of the last 25 years, Pierce moved his
organization from the Washington metropolitan area to Westboro, West
Virginia. Like the Church of the Creator (COTC) and White Aryan
Resistance, Pierce has abandoned Christianity as a religion tainted by
its Jewish roots. Instead, Pierce promotes an anti-Semitic
"Creativity" style religion similar to that preached by the COTC.
Pierce had close ties with COTC founder Ben Klassen and owns several acres
of property that he bought from Klassen in rural Georgia. The National Alliance and Pierce are most successful as
propaganda mills. His press, the National Vanguard, publishes not
only Pierce's hateful novels, but also tracts advocating forcible
separation of the races, "proofs" that blacks are genetically
inferior to whites and bizarre theories of Jewish control of American
government, society and thought. He broadcasts a weekly radio program
called "American Dissident Voices" which he makes available for
all to hear on his Web site. Pierce also once wrote that "all the homosexuals, race-mixers and
hard-case collaborators in the country who are too far gone to be
re-educated can be rounded up, packed into 10,000 or so cattle cars, and
eventually double-timed into an abandoned coal mine in a few days'
time." This statement is, of course, similar to the actions of
Hitler's Third Reich. Despite [or because of??] Pierce's stark neo-Nazism,
research shows that the National Alliance is a consistently growing
organization. The World Church of the Creator Another Conservative Right group that is a descendent of Rockwell's
American Nazi Party is the so-called World Church of the Creator.
As seen above, William Pierce rejected Christianity because it was
"contaminated" with Judaism. Hence, he and other followers of
American Nazism, specifically Matt Hale, established a new religion of
"Creation." The following description of the religion of
Creativity can be found at http://www.creator.org
After six thousand years of recorded history, our people finally have a religion of, for, and by, them. CREATIVITY is that religion. It is established for the Survival, Expansion, and Advancement of our White Race exclusively. Indeed, we believe that what is good for the White Race is the highest virtue, and what is bad for the White Race is the ultimate sin.
Invisible Empire, Knights of the Ku Klux Klan The following description can be found at http://www.duke.org/. David
Duke is owner of the David Duke Online Report. David Duke is the best known and most politically active racist in the
United States and has one of the longest resumes on the Far Right.
Beginning as a Nazi sympathizer as a student at Louisiana State
University, Duke eventually formed the Invisible Empire, Knights of the
Ku Klux Klan, of which he was national leader. His lieutenants
included Don Black of Stormfront web page, Louis Beam, now of Aryan
Nations, and Tom Metzger, now of White Aryan Resistance. In the early 1980s, Duke left the KKK to form the National
Association for the Advancement of White People, a group he called a
"civil rights group" for whites. He also made a foray into
electoral politics, running first for President on the 1988 Populist
ticket backed Holocaust denier Willis Carto and managed by former American
Nazi Party official Ralph Forbes (under George Lincoln Rockwell). His
running mate for a short period of time was militia sympathizer Bo Gritz.
After garnishing a tiny number of votes, Duke then put his emphasis on
Louisiana politics, winning a seat in the Louisiana legislature. In 1992, Duke shocked the country by forcing Louisiana into a runoff
election for governor that he eventually lost. Recently, however, Duke ran
abortively once again for president in 1996 and was very recently elected
to head the GOP in St. Tammany, Louisiana, the largest white parish in the
state. Holocaust Denial and the "Respectability" of Racism As pointed out by Schmaltz, though it was once espoused solely by the
"lunatic fringe," the denial of the Holocaust has become an
acceptable part of the public fare in both academic and public media
outlets. The Committee on the Open Debate on the Holocaust (CODOH), part
of a national neo-Nazi (Aryan Nation/Christian Identity) movement in the
United States, regularly runs advertisements in student newspapers on
public and private university and college campuses. They openly seek to
persuade young students that the Holocaust was a lie, perpetrated by
powerful Jewish conspirators seeking even more power. CODOH was originated by Bradley Smith and Mark Weber, using marketing
techniques that are directed at students. Of course, university and
college students are not only experienced with the Internet but are also
somewhat disposed to challenge authority. Recent ads, like the one
appearing in the student newspaper, the Logos, at the University of the
Incarnate Word in San Antonio, hooks readers with a promise of a $250,000
reward to whoever can arrange a 90-minute, prime-time nationally televised
debate about the Holocaust between Smith and ADL. According the AntiDefamation League, Smith readily admits he doesn't
"really expect a TV debate to take place." This ad, like Smith's
previous efforts, is a "bait and switch," a deceptive enticement
spouting hollow promises designed to encourage students to visit his
"vast Internet archive of revisionist scholarship and comment." Conclusion In spite of the absence of the title "National Socialism" in
the language of the Conservative Right in the United States, the original
racist, misogynist, and genocidal creed of National Socialism and its
objectives have been inherited by various Conservative Right groups
sharing the same ideology of hate. The legacy of this creed can be traced
from Hitler's Third Reich eugenics theorists and practitioners to the American
Nazi Party, the National Alliance, the Aryan Nations, The Order, and
Christian Identity--among others. It is also found in various guises
in social policy and political pronouncements and proposed
"solutions" of politicians and spokesmen for the Conservative
Right, including powerful Conservative Right factions of the Republican
Party. In addition to spouting the Holocaust Denial theme, various
Conservative Right groups associated one way or another with the
Republican Party, rallying against Civil Rights legislation passed largely
in the 1960's, have used what amounts to the creed of National Socialism
on which to base their arguments and their movement. In the year 2000, we are witnessing a dramatic increase in hate groups
across the U.S. Many of them spout the most hateful invectives against
Jews, "mud" people, "60's Liberals, the U.S. Government,
and women. The Internet has proven to be one of their most effective means
of their communication and growth, enlisting more and more disenfranchised
or just simply disturbed people. Their hate websites are filled with overt
threats against leaders of liberal groups and other social causes. We have
also witnessed an apparent willingness of some young people-- mostly young
white males --to use assault weapons to kill others as well as themselves.
Among the latter, police and investigators found a disturbing presence of
neo-Nazi sentiments and admiration of Adolf Hitler. Footnotes *Labels such as 'Conservative' and 'Liberal' are notoriously vague. However, the term 'Conservative Right' is taken to refer to a spectrum of political groups generally associated with the Republican Party in the United States. It is also taken here to refer to the extreme and religious Right and Far Right Conservatism in the United States.
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